Edmonton Oilers missed their star and fall to the Dallas Stars

Matt Benning of the Edmonton Oilers skates the puck against the Dallas Stars in the first period at American Airlines Center on Monday, Dec. 03, 2018 in Dallas, Texas.Ronald Martinez / Getty Images

DALLAS — There’s gopher holes in a lineup, then there’s bringing out the back-hoe to rip up a backyard.

With the Edmonton Oilers’ captain Connor McDavid sick and missing his first game since February of 2016 when he was out 37 games with a busted collarbone, the Oilers didn’t have the pulse of their team after 222 straight games. In that time McDavid had a league-leading 279 points, 28 more than Sidney Crosby, No. 2 over that time period.

So, yes, a crater, considering his points and how much he plays (22:37), most of any NHL forward, which meant Leon Draisaitl, who had been on the wing on the top line, had to pick up the slack and he played 8:40 in the first period and eight in the second and 25:25 in all but it wasn’t enough as they lost 4-1 to the Stars.

Jason Dickinson, Brett Ritchie, Jamie Benn on a powerplay beat Mikko Koskinen, who was on the bench as Esa Lindell scored short-handed with two minutes left.

Jujhar Khaira banged in a rebound off a Draisaitl shot for the Oilers’ goal, as their three-game win streak ended.

They worked hard from the opening face-off even with a scrambled-egg lineup but they’re an offensively challenged club with McDavid (only 65 regulation goals in 26 games coming in) and without him there was lots of try but no goals.

“We were good for two periods (down 1-0) then they got the one early (Ritchie) in the third and we didn’t have enough of a push-back…there was too much of a sag from our bench,” said Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, who played almost 24 minutes and coach Ken Hitchcock rode his two biggest horses with McDavid gone.

The Oilers, 14-18-5 in the 37 games McDavid missed in his first NHL season, thought they would have McDavid for this one, ill or not, even after he wasn’t there for the morning skate, two days after his electric performance against Vegas Saturday at Rogers Place.

“We’re not going to have Connor and (Ryan) Spooner (also sick) not practice in St. Louis either so they can save themselves for the games,” said Hitchcock after the morning skate Monday, hoping both guys would be able to play against Stars.

But as healthy as Hitchcock looks these days, those two weren’t on this night

McDavid quietly played about a month last season with the flu, with no energy, losing 15 pounds. He was seen with lots of bottles of fluid during the day Monday to stay hydrated but with his dad Brian here as part of the dad’s road trip, he was unable to go. Perhaps they’re being more careful with him this season, hoping if he had the blues Monday, he’ll be back for the Blues in St. Louis Wednesday.

On top of that, centre Spooner was also ill and couldn’t dress so they were down two forwards in a scrambly game with Dickinson scoring 11 minutes into the first period when he was wide-open, 25-feet in front of Koskinen, then Brett Ritchie, a frequent healthy scratch, banged one home early in the third. In both cases Mattias Janmark set him up on partially whiffed passes.

Benn got one on a silly penalty by Zack Kassian, who had a strong game up until the third period when he lost his cool and smashed his stick in the penalty box after getting a misconduct for abuse of officials. Presumably for what he said than what he did because it was only 10 and nothing more.

The Oilers had chances on Anton Khudobin, who lost a 1-0 OT game last week as Oscar Klefbom scored off a Draisaitl feed, but he stopped Draisaitl on a 2-on-1 with Alex Chiasson in the second, and Jesse Puljujarvi had an open net but fired it over the bar, also in the middle frame.

“I was kicking myself in the bum after that one,” said Draisaitl, who figured he didn’t put the shot where he wanted to.

Get out the blender

With his first-line centre McDavid and fourth-line pivot Spooner out Hitchcock still had Draisaitl and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins as his top 2 in the middle, and double-shifted them on a make-shift fourth line with only 11 forwards dressed. Not many teams have that kind of depth but it was still a helicopter lineup. No wings, or very few with offensive punch. There was only one winger, Chiasson, in double-figures in goals. Milan Lucic was off the Identity Line and on LW with Draisaitl and Chiasson on the No. 1 line.

Filling out lineup card

With only 11 healthy forwards, the Oilers dressed seven D with Chris Wideman getting in for his second Oiler game and playing four first-period shifts (2:29) and not another one until the third. He was on for the first Dallas goal with partner Darnell Nurse but got an assist on Khaira’s goal to off-set his minus earlier.

One for all and all for one

After Chiasson drilled Jason Spezza and was getting a boarding minor in the third, Roope Hintz dropped the mitts to get at the Oiler winger, then Nurse fed Devin Shore with a flurry of right-hands in the same scrum, joining Kassian in the box.

Doesn’t compute, but…

The Oilers held Dallas to four shots, three by forwards (none named Benn, Tyler Seguin or Alex Radulov) in the first period but still trailed 1-0 on Dickinson’s goal. Janmark fanned on a pass to Dickinson in the high slot but he had three steamboats to tee it up anyway with nobody within 10 feet of him. Nurse was on the far side with Janmark, along with Wideman, on the play. “I thought we did a good job on that line for about 2/3rds of the game actually,” said Hitchcock. Seguin, who drilled the cross-bar in the second, had three of his five shots and Benn two of his three in the third.

This ’n that: Drake Caggiula was smacked in the kisser by Benn’s stick midway through the second but no penalty because it was a follow-through by the Stars’ captain. “I was a little baffled (no call) but if that’s what they say it was and that’s the rule, OK,” said Caggiula, who hurt his jaw on the play. Same thing happened earlier in the middle frame when Dickinson took Khaira’s stick in the face. “Both on back-hand follow throughs…that’s strange,” said Caggiula.

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